Gov. Malloy Dead Wrong on Hillary’s Email Woes

When Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy endorsed Hillary Clinton for president back in June, The Shad characterized it as premature (and I was being generous). Malloy was joined by Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, Attorney General George Jepsen and state Democratic Party Chairman Nick Balletto in backing Mrs. Clinton 17 months before the election. Now it seem Malloy is trying to validate that decision, telling anyone who will listen the controversy over her use of a private server for her state department emails will “run its course.” The view here is that Malloy is wrong. And he is factually wrong in his defense of her in New Hampshire.

Malloy told a gathering of New Hampshire Democrats earlier this week that the secretaries of state before Clinton did the same thing. That’s false. Colin Powell used private emails for public business but neither he nor Condoleezza Rice, both of whom served under President George W. Bush, used private servers. There’s a big difference.

Hillary may think wiping an email server is “like with a cloth or something?” but the truth is that the use of a private email does not allow one to wipe the server clean as she did with hers. Neither Powell nor Rice had a server in the closet at their home and therefore no complete control over what was on it.

Malloy couldn’t be more wrong if he thinks this controversy—and by extension—the voters’ distrust of Clinton—is going away. The fact is she had the server wiped before she belatedly turned it over to the FBI. She claims there was nothing on the server that was classified. Well, we’ll never know because she had it wiped clean!

Signs are everywhere that Clinton is in trouble. The fact that plain-spoken socialist Bernie Sanders leads her in New Hampshire has less to do with the fact Sanders is from a neighboring state and than with the fact that every time she opens her mouth something tested, focus-grouped and parsed comes out. We went from “nothing was classified” to “nothing was marked classified.”

Democrats wouldn’t be courting Joe Biden to run if Hillary was in a position to win a general. They are. She’s not.

The email scandal is only part of the Clinton baggage. Mix in the still-unanswered questions about Benghazi as well as the curious correlation between state department help for countries or companies from the state department under Clinton to massive donations to the Clinton Foundation or stunningly huge speaking fees for Bill Clinton.

Malloy is also wrong to lay Clinton’s problems at the feet of the Republican presidential candidates. Everyone from Jeb Bush to John Kasich to Marco Rubio is focused solely on how to break through the tsunami that is Donald Trump. Still worse for Clinton are the real attacks she’ll face from Republicans when they do strike.

Malloy and company simply endorsed Hillary too soon and there is a real chance they will come to regret it.